Haverfest and Threat of Loss

            During the past two weeks, which are the two weeks before Haverfest, a group of students station themselves in the DC lobby to sell Haverfest T-shirts, mugs, sunglasses, and hats. While some students buy all of these items, the hot ones are usually the T-shirts and the mugs. Every year, or at least for the two years I have been here so far, there are two T-shirts to choose from and it seems as though most people end up liking one of the shirts over the other. This means that one shirt goes fast while there are usually leftovers of the other one. I experienced this last year when I took too long to make a purchase and the T-shirt type that I wanted, and the type that apparently everyone else wanted, was sold out.

            This year, I was ready and jumped at the opportunity to buy the T-shirt that I and everyone else seemed to like the best. I did not want to experience another lost opportunity like I had the year before. At this point, I hadn’t realized that one of the factors that was motivating my behavior was the principle of scarcity. The moment I realized this was when, the next day, the students selling the merchandise called out that there were only a limited number of the green shirts left, and I felt pretty good about getting a shirt before they had all sold out. I realized that what motivated me to by the better shirt early on was the loss I had experienced last year. If I had any waited longer to buy the shirt this year, not only would the memory of my loss from last year drive me to buy it, but also the fact that the salespeople were yelling out that there were only a few T-shirts of that kind left.

            I was thus hit by a double whammy of threat of loss, from both my past experiences and the current situation. My motivation to buy the T-shirt primarily lies in the social influence principle of scarcity. According to this principle, individuals are motivated by loss or a threat of loss. In the case of the Haverfest T-shirts, when there are a limited number of shirts left, they will become more desired and the students will think that because the shirts are going quickly, they are better. And because one shirt always seems to go faster than another, this shirt is considered to be the more desirable one. While it may actually look better than the other shirt, I think that scarcity plays a significant role in why that particular T-shirt becomes sold out. For instance, if a student had no preference for either of the shirts, but learned that one of them had only a limited number left, this threat of loss and the perceived desirability of the shirt would drive him or her to choose it over the other one.

            This simple example of how scarcity influences my actions and those of other students on campus made me think of how scarcity plays a role in other aspects of life at Haverford. Every so often, an organization on campus called FAB (Fords Against Boredom) gets tickets to sports games and musicals or has a certain of number of spots on a bus to go ice skating, skiing, and laser tagging, all for free! While giving students an opportunity to get off campus and have fun is enough incentive to sign up for these activities, scarcity also plays a role. Since there are a limited number of these tickets or spots, students will perceive the activities as being more desirable. There is also a limited time frame where you can sign up for the activities—students will get up at 7am in hopes of getting their names on the list. Would these activities be less desirable if there were an unlimited number of spots? The principle of scarcity would suggest this.

            The effects of scarcity are also evident in the context of academics when considering unlimited and limited enrollment classes. I have found that I am usually drawn to the classes that have a limited enrollment, especially the ones that are capped at 15, because I think they seem more interesting. What I did not realize is that the idea of scarcity has influenced me to think this way. Without knowing anything about the class except for the short description on the registrar, I have made assumptions about the quality of the class just because it is limited enrollment. It is interesting to speculate about how many aspects of our life scarcity influences, and to what extent. We may make decisions and be motivated to carry out certain behaviors not by rational thinking, but because of this perceived threat of loss.

Image: Haverfest 2013 T-shirt design by Caroline Fleet. From: https://www.facebook.com/Haverfest2013